Thoughts about following Jesus

{1 Peter 2:9; NLT} But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

If the creator God is the goal, then what that means for human beings is not that they will be absorbed into God, losing their identity and individuality, but that they will come once more to reflect the divine image fully and completely—from God into the world, and from the world back to God. In other words: rulers and priests.